Bear Digest

Bears may place limitations on Rome Odunze in return against Packers

The foot injury Rome Odunze has apparently will allow him to play against Green Bay but the second-year receiver might not get a full game.
Gene Chamberlain|
Rome Odunze cuts to the outside against the Giants after a reception.
Rome Odunze cuts to the outside against the Giants after a reception. | Mike Dinovo-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The Rome Odunze Bears fans can expect to see in Saturday night's playoff game could be different.

This could be a limited form of Odunze.

The Bears' second-year receiver is expecting to play and everything the coaching staff has said is leading this way after five straight missed games with a foot fracture. However, it doesn't mean he'll be going all out for 60-some plays.

"There might be some limitations, those are still to be discussed," Odunze said.

That most likely means a play-count limit. Considering what happened to Odunze earlier when he tried to make a comeback, this is probably a wise decision by the Bears.

"For me, I’m looking to be out there as much as possible, make as many plays as I can," Odunze said. "At the end of the day, it’s all or nothing for this game to make it to the Super Bowl until the end of the season. I want to contribute as much as possible and put everything that I have out there on the field.

"That’s my mentality. Obviously the trainers  and everybody has the scientific and the correct way of going about things."

Coping with play count

Because he wants to play, Odunze will cooperate with this thought but added, "It’s going to be a little bit of clash at hand because of those things."

Offensive coordinator Declan Doyle expressed this idea of limited use, as well

"You don't want to be giving him way too much, and yet he's a guy that can help us," Doyle said. "We'll be evaluating that over the next three days of practice as we finalize this plan and put that stuff together.

"Anytime that he can be a part of it, you certainly want to be able to use him and maximize the time that he's out in the field and get him the ball. Really, it's the same with all of our players. We always have plays for each guy specifically. We're excited to have him back.”

Odunze hasn't had a full practice yet. He went through a limited one on Wednesday. He had a limited practice last Friday, as well.

Odunze is not on IR so there is no roster move they need to make to bring him back. There could be problematic personnel decisions to be made for game day because with two recently injured players returning in Odunze and Gordon, they may need to elevate extra depth at those positions in case both players aggravate their injuries.

Gordon had a groin injury and aggravated it during pregame warmups four weeks ago. Odunze aggravated his foot injury in warmups before the Cleveland game.

Odunze admitted his conditioning won't be peak.

"Yeah, it’s tough for me; obviously this being my first time and being out the past five weeks, you feel as good as you feel," he said. "For the guys that have played 17 games this season, their bodies are probably feeling a different way.

"I have been out for five weeks, my body is feeling a different way. Guys that have been off and on the whole season. Guys like Kyler who may be coming back and playing in the game feeling like that. Everybody is in their own unique state at the end of the day but we’re all focused on the goal of winning this football game and going to the Super Bowl. We’re putting all that to the side and go out there and play the best possible ball that we can."

What Odunze learned

Sitting out for so long proved both aggravating and educational for Odunze, who was far ahead for the team lead in receptions and led in yards and TDs when he went out. He did tie for the team lead in TD catches with DJ Moore and Colston Loveland at six but finished fourth in receptions with 44 and third in yards at 661.

"It was a unique lesson," he said. "I’ve obviously played through certain things in my career that I feel like maybe I shouldn’t have played through in certain instances. There was some conversation with the injuries that I was dealing with this year on that sort of basis. ‘Can I play through it. Am I going to continue to hurt myself more, or heighten the injury?’ And stuff like that.

"It was kind of like a back-and-forth battle. But, at the end of the day, wehave some of the highest educated or qualified people in the building to be able to assess those things, and we have doctors looking at different things."

He took it all in stride.

"It’s funny," he said. "When players are watching on the sidelines, it’s a lot easier to point out mistakes and say, ‘Hey, you should’ve done this,’ when guys who are on the field are like, ‘I don’t know what was happening.’ You can definitely see the coaches' perspective and how they can get angry and not appreciate when you make mistakes.

"On the sideline it’s not as intense, I would say. Obviously, it helped me learn a lot about myself, too. This is my first time being out in the league. Having to sit out, it makes you grateful for the game."

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.